Monday, January 2, 2012

2012 Preview: Marvel Legends Action Figures

For fans of Marvel Comics action figures, Hasbro's 2012 return to the 6 inch line we loved best is monumental. We have one request...Don't screw this up.

Things we are looking for:Scale - If a dude is 6 feet tall, another is 5 foot nuthin with claws and another is 7 foot plus, please show us that difference.Likeness - Most of us have an iconic look in our heads for our heroes and villains. You know what it is, since you are fans too. That is what we want. Not silvery robots with belly buttons.Quality - When Marvel Legends last graced the shelves in two-pack form, the feel of the figure was excellent. No wobbly joints, substantial plastics used, nice paint applications and a superior attention to detail. As I open my Walmart exclusive 6 inch Marvel Movie figures, save for Nick Fury, all I can think is these were rushed and made as cheaply as possible and it all shows. The knees are wobbly, the paints are uneven, you can see the marks where the plastic over-pour was broken away and WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO LOKI??!! It's like no one wants to make this guy the way we remember him...basically NOT a menacing, roided out monster. More importantly, if this is a movie line, why isn't he Tom Hiddleston Loki to match your new Chris Hemsworth Thor?! The mind boggles. End of rant.

If we are going to be spending 16 bucks a pop on these guys, we want them to be something YOU will be proud of, just like the awesome and endless Star Wars releases and the mind blowing newest G.I. Joe waves. We will accept nothing short of awesome.

That said, lets take a look at the 2012 Marvel Legends Action Figures series 1: The Terrax wave!!

Seven figures make up the first wave including :Heroic Age Thor

Steve Rogers Captain America (there was said to be a variant of this guy coming with his Photon Shield, but we haven't seen or heard anything more about it.)

Extremis Iron Man (with a Stealth Armor variant)

Constrictor

Ghost Rider (with an orange flame variant, since most fans don't know who the hell this blue guy is)

Marvel's Klaw

X-Men's Hope Summers

These are showing up overseas at the moment, so I expect them to be everywhere VERY SOON! Collect all 7 (or is that 6? I'm confused by the imagery below) to build the somewhat larger Terrax the Tamer..former herald of Galactus himself!

I'll go on record as saying it is a good thing the line has at least 4 figures fans want; the last three (being Thor, Iron Man and Ghost Rider) won't sting so badly as we will all be after a Terrax figure. This is a must have for Marvel Legends fans and while he is not the MASSIVE build a figure we remember fondly from days gone by (my army of Sentinels take a bow), I expect people will be chomping at the bit for him. For my collection, if I could live without Terrax (which I can't), I'd just be buying Klaw and Constrictor, full of happiness that Hasbro understands we want bad guys to fill out our collections, even if we have to suffer through more Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Wolverine and Spider-Man to get to them, to appease the retail gods. Honestly though, with all the 6 inch Iron Man we've been getting, I expected that Extremis armor to be miles better. The line is called Legends, folks. Let's see some LEGENDARY figures. Re-sculpt that sucker already. I want to see an Iron Man figure that looks like there's a full sized human being in there.

We didn't want to go too crazy in this article, so we'll stop at series 1, but I'll mention that Series 2 is set to include Heroic Age Captain America (AKA Bucky Cap), Thunderball (with a Piledriver variant), Dark Wolverine Daken (with swapable maskless head so it doesn't just look like another regular Wolverine figure), Madame Masque (with Lady Hydra variant) Fantomex, Drax and "Big Time" Spider-Man (who really should have pinky rings with a name like that.) Arnim Zola is the Build A Figure in this series. CLICK HERE for a detailed look at these figures and HERE for a second helping!

Got a list of characters and a BAF you'd love to see in a series? Use the comments below for your geek wish list! Maybe someone will be watching...

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